Heat Treating

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Solar Manufacturing designed, built and shipped a vacuum furnace to a company specializing in tool and die. The furnace, which will primarily be utilized to harden tool steels, is capable of operating temperatures up to 2400°F (1315°C). It features a graphite-insulated hot zone measuring 12 inches wide x 12 inches high x 18 inches deep and a load weight capacity up to 250 pounds.

Wisconsin Oven designed and built a horizontal spray-quench furnace for C/A Design, a supplier to the defense industry based in Dover, N.H. The furnace will be used for the solution treatment of aluminum. It is designed to soak the product load at temperature in the furnace before a pusher mechanism rapidly moves the load into the spray quench, which offers reduced distortion in comparison to submersion quenching. The maximum temperature for this system is 1150°F (621°C), and it has sufficient capacity to heat a 200-pound aluminum load plus the work grid and product fixture.

Retech, a U.S.-based subsidiary of SECO/WARWICK Group, established a cooperation with GeniCore, a Poland-based composite materials engineering company. Thanks to the cooperation, Retech will expand its offering in powder-metal processes with spark plasma sintering (SPS). The SPS process bonds materials using a combination of pressure and thermal energy applied to materials in a mold. It resembles hot pressing, but the SPS process consumes far less energy and, more importantly, can bond a broader range of materials into novel composites unachievable by other processes, according to GeniCore and Retech.

Solar Atmospheres of Michigan Inc., formerly known as Vac-Met Inc., successfully reached its first milestone in the relocation phase. Solar Atmospheres has invested over $5 million in new equipment with all new utilities. The installed equipment includes two vacuum furnaces, an air tempering furnace and a freezer. As a result, the company was able to host its first AS9100D audit at the facility in Chesterfield, Mich. This quality management system audit for aviation, space and defense organizations, which incorporates ISO9001 standards, passed with zero findings.

Nitrex successfully commissioned two nitriding systems for Alumil S.A., an extrusion company and producer of architectural systems based in Greece. Alumil recently started up two pit-type nitriding systems installed at separate locations. The first system, which has a 3-ton load capacity, is operational at Alumil’s facility in Greece. The second system, which has a 1.2-ton load capacity, is located at the company’s operation in Serbia. The turnkey solution provided by Nitrex includes Nitreg technology. In anticipation of Alumil’s plans to expand manufacturing capacities in Greece, the system installed at this location has been sized up to accommodate future growth.

One of the largest service hardening plants in Spain has purchased a vacuum furnace from SECO/WARWICK. The furnace on order, a Vector, will increase the company’s efficiency when hardening larger-dimension elements. It will join a machine park in which there is already one Vector vacuum furnace and a two-chamber furnace with an oil quench manufactured by SECO/WARWICK. The vacuum furnace will be equipped with options such as convection, directional cooling and isothermal quenching. According to SECO/WARWICK, it has a large working space measuring 35.5 x 35.5 x 47 inches (900 x 900 x 1,200 mm) with the capacity to adjust to an oversized load by utilizing the advantages of a circular heating chamber.

Nitrex successfully installed a second set of nitriding and nitrocarburizing systems for a hydraulics manufacturer based in Europe. The investment strengthens the company’s in-house heat-treatment capabilities and reaffirms its commitment to delivering quality components for hydraulic pumps and motors. The company integrated two Nitrex horizontal-type nitrocarburizing furnaces into its existing setup in 2022, paving the way for two identical furnaces in 2023. These systems primarily serve to nitride and nitrocarburize components made from various steels and alloys, such as ductile iron and hardened steel.

IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating Online Course has been a successful source of high-level learning for those in the industrial heat-processing industry for over a decade. The course is taught over a 6-week period and is designed to give students flexibility – with interaction from a moderator and online forums to communicate with other students. Each week students will be assigned a chapter to read from the Fundamentals of Process Heating course handbook (electronic version included with course registration) and expected to participate in forum discussions and complete weekly quizzes. There is a final-exam project that will be assigned during the fifth week of class. The moderator will be available by email to respond to questions and provide clarification.

A plant that produces highly advanced fasteners for the largest manufacturers in the aerospace industry ordered a vacuum furnace from SECO/WARWICK. The furnace will process self-locking nuts, nut plates, barrel nuts, stud nuts, spline nuts, clamp nuts and a wide range of washers and flanges. It will operate at temperatures up to 2372°F (1300°C). The furnace will be delivered in a standard configuration and become part of the Italian company’s modern production plant.

Lindberg/MPH shipped three electrically heated, rod-overbend pit furnaces with air-cooled fans. The furnaces will be used to heat treat steel components in a nitrogen atmosphere. Designed to handle a wide range of part sizes, they have a maximum temperature rating of 2000°F (1093°C). Two of the units have work-chamber dimensions of 28 inches in diameter x 36 inches deep with a maximum gross workload of 2,000 pounds. The third furnace has work-chamber dimensions of 60 inches in diameter x 109 inches deep with a maximum gross workload of 20,000 pounds.